Berkeley Prep overwhelms bruised Lakeland Christian

Friday

TAMPA — A banged up Lakeland Christian couldn’t stop the Berkeley Prep running game and came out on the bottom end of a 28-7 Region 3A-3 matchup on Friday at Newman Stadium in Tampa.

Berkeley (2-2) rolled up 312 yards on the ground and took a 28-0 halftime lead, getting two touchdown runs from senior quarterback Josh Youngblood. He also threw for two more.

“We just didn’t play good,” Lakeland Christian head coach Danny Williams said. “Though we were good in the second half.”

Youngblood opened the scoring with a 4-yard touchdown run in the first quarter at the 8:02 mark. He added a second 21-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and also fired a 25-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide out R.J. Garcia in between scoring runs.

Holding a 21-0 lead with 57 seconds to play in the second quarter, Berkeley scored its fourth touchdown on a 46-yard pass from Youngblood to freshman tight end Tre Reader.

“We really thought we had to play a perfect game tonight and we made some plays in all phases,” Berkeley head coach Dominick Ciao said. “Our O-line got our backs and our defense forced a few turnovers, that helped. It was a big win but we have a long way to go.”

Lakeland Christian (2-2), playing the entire game with backup quarterback Elijah Hunter, scored with 4:36 remaining in the game, getting a 46-yard touchdown pass from Hunter to senior wide out Trent Mason.

Hunter took over at quarterback this week after Ryan Overstreet suffered a broken leg in last week’s game.

“That play went pretty much how we practiced it and you can’t ask for any more than that. Our team is just banged up right now,” Mason said.

Hunter finished the game 11 of 28 for 217 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 20 yards.

“(Hunter) will be fine. He really did some good things and made some good throws, but we missed some reads,” Williams said. “We had made him a receiver before (Overstreet) got hurt to get him in the game, and then had to move him back to quarterback.”

Lakeland Christian has a bye week coming up and then will host Fort Meade.

Bill Kemp can be reached at Bill.Kemp@theledger.com; follow him on Twitter @BillKempSports

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